Technical Overview
SpellDoctor™ is a patent-pending Web-based application that first captures and logs student spelling errors detected by Microsoft Word® and then lets students, teachers, and parents easily access those errors and work to correct them. SpellDoctor™ features a user-friendly interface designed for both students and teachers/parents and is accessed by any standard browser over the Internet.
SpellDoctor Word Template
The SpellDoctor Word Template must be
downloaded to each home computer or school workstation where
a student will be writing. Installing the applet on a home computer
or school workstation takes less than five minutes. After initial
installation, the applet loads automatically whenever Microsoft
Word® is being used.
The SpellDoctor Word Template works behind the scenes
of Microsoft Word®, automatically capturing and logging all spelling errors
that the spell checker detects. When the students finish
their document, they access the SpellDoctor Word Template to view any spelling
errors it logged during their current session and then request
it to upload these errors into the database at SPELLDOCTOR.COM.
Database Organization at SPELLDOCTOR.COM
Each school or organization has its own secure database hosted at SPELLDOCTOR.COM. SpellDoctor takes care of backups, security, firewall settings, server maintenance and database administration for all its customers.
Within each school or organization’s database is a complete record of each student’s spelling errors, organized by session/date, teacher, and class. Error incidence for each word is also tracked and entered into the database. If there are additional curriculum-based standardized spelling words to be learned and tested on a weekly basis, these preset lists are also managed by the database and organized by class and calendar.
As students work through the spelling instruction, practice, and test activities at SPELLDOCTOR.COM, any misspelled test words are placed into the database “error pool” and are then reviewed and retested at specified intervals.
All words assigned to each student, whether captured by the SpellDoctor Word Template during a writing assignment or assigned as part of a preset curriculum-based spelling list, are added to an Individualized Spelling Journal hosted at SPELLDOCTOR.COM. Students, teachers, and parents may review the journal at any time, focusing on all the words they have studied or just those words with high error incidence number or words misspelled in their test activities.
Teacher & Administrator Database
Capabilities
SpellDoctor gives teachers and administrators the most advanced spelling assessment and data management capabilities available today. Teachers and administrators can track student, class, school, and district spelling data, aggregate and disaggregate the data, and produce detailed spelling reports for any given time period. This comprehensive data is invaluable for helping educators make more effective decisions about spelling curriculum and instruction.
Text-to -Speech Technology
SpellDoctor uses text-to-speech technology for student activities, featuring Microsoft Agent animated characters. These characters act as spelling coaches. They move freely within the computer display, speak aloud, and react to student interaction within each spelling activity.
Using the text-to-speech technology allows SpellDoctor to provide a personal learning experience for students. And because spelling words are spoken out loud and/or in the context of a sentence, this technology provides a realistic testing environment as well.
Set-Up Utilities for Teachers and Administrators
SpellDoctor set-up utilities streamline the process of using SPELLDOCTOR.COM. These set-up utilities allow administrators to import student data directly from their own school database—eliminating the need to re-enter student profile information during the initial set-up period or to re-enter it each time a student is added to the system.
Administrators can import data from an external database, including name, grade, teacher, username, and password. Student spelling data can be exported to an ASCII-compatible file format that can be uploaded into another system, ensuring teachers and administrators have access to all the data they need to make effective instructional decisions. Conversely, curriculum-based spelling words for an entire year can be imported into SpellDoctor from ASCII-compatible file formats and then organized into weekly or bi-weekly lists.